The global internet has become a standard telecommunication system in modern life. The internet provides telecommunication means such as email, voice over internet protocol (VOIP) telephony, and video conferencing. The internet acts as a mass media communication network by offering a wide variety of media such as news websites, entertainment websites, downloadable music, downloadable video, and digital media forms. The internet also offers services such as investment services, banking, computer services, and internet gaming. The internet even provides a convenient means of obtaining physical products through the use of online merchants and auction sites.
Most homes and businesses in the United States of America now have some form of internet access. Initially, most homes relied upon relatively slow dial-up analog modem lines to access the global internet. But more recently, higher-speed forms of internet access as provided by digital subscriber lines (DSL), cable modems, and wireless network connections are becoming increasingly common. These higher speed forms of internet access allow homes and businesses to access rich multi-media web sites that include images, audio, and video. Due to the large amount of data required to store a representation of an image, some internet analysts believe that most internet packets are now carrying some form of image information (in the form of web site graphics, video, photographs, etc.).
As users are increasingly accessing greater amounts of information by downloading data-intensive items such as video, internet service providers (ISPs) are being pressured to upgrade their data networks in order to handle these rapidly growing data demands. The high costs of upgrading data networks can adversely affect the profit margins of internet service providers. This is especially true when the internet service providers are being pressured to increase data network capacity without receiving greater revenues in the form of internet access subscriber fees. Thus, internet service providers have a great incentive to optimize the usage of their existing data network investments such that internet subscribers continue to receive high-quality internet service and costly data network upgrades can be deferred.